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I myself really enjoyed the film and the few shots here and there really were creepy. The score was pretty good, reminded me of Herrmann in a way. The final two tracks are wonderful cues.
I wasn't a big fan of his Sixth Sense score, but I did like the Village.
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Another 'disagree-er' here!
One of JNH's absolute best!
It does what great scores always do. It makes the film seem better than it is. And that's all down to the incredible music soundtrack.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again--that this score wasn't even nominated for an Oscar is a damning statement about the Academy's music branch. (One of many, unfortunately.)
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Posted: |
Feb 24, 2012 - 10:28 PM
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By: |
losher22
(Member)
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I've mentioned in a different thread that The Village score is what prompted me to start purchasing film music in the first place, and to date it's one of my favorite scores and one of the most breathtaking and beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.
Signs, however, is a very close second, but in a slightly different way. The masterful mix of spooky ambient synth swells, soft emotional set pieces, and that goddamned brilliant three-note motif haunt me to this day. There are times where I can't listen to the score at all because I either get frightened or sad, or a strange mix of both. The climax of the movie where Graham is praying to God to revive Morgan, mixed with the end of the "Hand of Fate Part I," actually make me cry sometimes. Seriously. There are *extremely* few movies that have this kind of effect on me, and without the music that scene would just be plain good. JNH remains one of my first and best-loved composers!
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Posted: |
Feb 24, 2012 - 10:41 PM
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By: |
JSWalsh
(Member)
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First, the music in THE VILLAGE that plays over that slow-motion-y moment of the two characters getting into the basement is, for me, a real show-stopper. I didn't care for the movie, but the music really worked with the photography to create a mood. When that yearning violin played, I was jolted into the moment. It did exactly what great film music is supposed to do--it manages to work AS music, but it also acts as a bridge between the sometmies unwilling viewer and the movie he's watching. Just one of the most exquisite pieces of scoring.
SIGNS is one of those scores I just can't excerpt, I have to listen to the whole thing. Individual moments in individual cues are pieces that make little sense as anything but color on their own, but when taken as a whole, it's a CD that makes a complete statement--beginning, middle, end. It is not a CD that plays well on 'random'. Sure, that can be said for many scores where development of a theme is involved, but I think Howard was really pushing something here, using texture in a way that just seems more musical than many sound design kinds of composition. (I sometimes wonder what he wanted to learn by working with Hans Zimmer.) He seems to be trying to stretch his musical muscles, and he rarely gets credit for that.
What is a piece of music that's overrated, anyway, but something we don't like that others do? It isn't something you can discuss--"It's overrated," "No it isn't," "Yes it is."
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This is the only JNH score that I can listen to over and over!
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Posted: |
Feb 25, 2012 - 12:27 PM
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By: |
Hurdy Gurdy
(Member)
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I never really cared for the film SIGNS.
I didn't hate it and cannot say I had a bad time when first watching it, but the huge plot holes and contrivances took me 'out of it' so many times, it ended up annoying me.
However, thanks to James Newton Howard's score, I still think of it more fondly than I should.
It truly is one of the best scores written in the past 20 years.
Together with The Village, a MNS film I did enjoy, these two scores make up some of the finest work JNH has ever done.
While I can't really say I've enjoyed his work as much post Batman Begins, I do hope the upcoming Hunger Games may galvanize his incredible talent back to this period.
Unlikely, but hey, a man can hope.
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